11-08-2026

“NO WORSE ENEMY, YET NO BETTER FRIEND”

Text: Amos 5:18-24 – Pentecost 24

Sunday November 8, 2026

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 24th Sunday after Pentecost is the OT Lesson from Amos 5 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit so that we may fear God’s wrath, respect his freedom to do with us whatever he desires, and seek refuge in His mercy revealed at the cross of Jesus.

 Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

   A predator is an animal that preys upon (kills and eats) other animals. How many of you know what an apex predator is?

An apex predator is an animal at the top of a food chain. An apex predator has no natural enemies. What’s an apex predator in the ocean? Orcas, not great white sharks. North America? Polar bear, grizzly bear, cougar, bald eagle. Iowa? Coyote. Ancient Israel? Lion.

In our text for this third-last Sunday of the church year, Old Testament Israel had forgotten that it had an apex predator even greater than, but in ways much like, a lion.

They were treating Yahweh, the Lord, as if he could be ignored or toyed with. They knew he was out there, but they were forgetting that he is at the top of the food chain, that everything goes through him, and that his wrath at those who treat him so cannot be ignored! So, too, for you and me!

If God Is Your Problem, Only God Can Be Your Solution.

I. Yahweh, the Lord God, is the apex predator.

A. Amos pictures Yahweh as a lion (1:2; 3:8).

1. A lion, as an apex predator, has no natural enemies.

r2. Yahweh has no equals. (The devil is not God’s opposite)

a. But Israel was worshiping him with hollow sacrifices—as to Canaanite gods (vv 21–23).

b. We often act as if God is not the apex.  

b. We often act as if God is not the apex. (Give examples: trusting our own judgment, the stock market, other influencers, and so on.)

B. Therefore, this lion will now devour his own people (Hos 5:14).

1. They have neglected all previous calls to repent (1:2; 4:6–12).

2. “Woe” (v 18) is a lament revealing that Israel will be Yahweh’s next prey.

3. Israel popularly understood “day of the Lord” as Yahweh’s triumph over his and Israel’s enemies, but now Yahweh’s triumph will be the destruction of Israel itself!

C. Ordinary apex predators are escapable, but there is no escape from Yahweh (v 19).

1. Prey animals use speed and agility, camouflage, mimicry, or group behavior to escape.

2. But Yahweh is free to do with us as he pleases. Neither our repentance nor our efforts to seek Yahweh can save us.

Our salvation and our damnation are his choice alone (5:15b).

3. “Darkness” refers to death, and its repetition (vv 18, 20) underscores the certainty of doom. Death and judgment day are coming to us all! 

4. Israel had a God-size problem! Do we also?

II. But Yahweh is the most reluctant predator.

A. He tries to talk Israel out of being caught (5:5–6).

1. He tells his prey how to escape (5:14–15).

2. He gives them warning of capture (vv 18–24)!

B. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they turn from their way and live (Ezek 33:11).

C. He is loving by nature (1 Jn 4:8; Ex 34:6).

D. And yet, for our sake, he will become the ultimate apex predator when he must (Ex 34:7).

1. Wrath is only God’s alien work: to bring repentance. It prepares us for his proper work: mercy.

2. God’s wrath always has mercy in view. God’s wrath is his mercy delayed—only until we repent.

III. For Yahweh is the just and righteous one.

A. We are commanded to “let justice roll . . . and righteousness” flow (v 24). Leave it to the Lord in other words…..

B. But justice and righteousness are more than commands given to Israel.

1. They are attributes of God himself. They describe how God is and what God does.

2. They are not just Law; they are also his gracious promises fulfilled by Christ through his death and resurrection (Rom 3:25–26; 4:24–25).

3. They are similar in force to “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3). God’s Word does what it says!

C. At the cross, Yahweh reveals himself as the Lord our righteousness (Jer 23:6).

1. We are declared righteous, justified, forgiven of all sin.

2. Christ crucified and risen is the God-size solution to our God-size problem!

An apex predator occupies the top of the food chain and has no natural enemies. In ancient Israel, the lion was a predator without peer. Prophets and apostles made use of that imagery to describe God’s work of judgment and salvation.

The Lord is a lion that will rip Israel open and devour it (Hos 13:7–9), but he is also a roaring lion who will protect and restore his people (Hos 11:10–11).

The Lord is a lion who roars judgment against his people (Amos 3:8), yet he is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” who has overcome sin and death on our behalf (Rev 5:5).

In the book of Amos, God is an angry lion who will devour his people, even as he has destroyed other nations that rebelled against him (Amos 1–4).

However, God’s self-description as an apex predator who will prey upon his people is intended to get their attention after all other attempts have failed (4:6–12).

God is not predatory by nature, but loving (1 Jn 4:8; Ex 34:6). He is a reluctant predator who must do his strange work of a predator in order to prepare us for his proper work of restoring us to himself through the ministry of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Ultimately, we have no worse enemy and no better friend than our God.  And even more than a friend, he is our Father, and he loves us in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which far surpasses all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen